Extensometers



Sept- 26, 1961 y s. w. sJs'rRM 3,001,291

EXTENSOMETERS Filed July 18, 1957 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Sept. 26, 1961 s. w. SJSTRM 3,001,291

EXTENSOMETERS Filed July 1s, 1957 4 vsheets-sheet s M NM Sept. ze, 1961 s. w. sJsrRM 3,001,291

By his affomeys www ` face.

' States This invention relates to extensom'eters for measuring strains and including a device comprising` a central body part and angularly deectible resilient legs whichzare movable within small limits relative to the' central; part and are provided with sharp indentors of a hard material for defining the length of a distance to be measured, the strains being; measured along said distance. If an extension or contraction of the material to be tested occurs along said distance, the distance between the indentors of the legs will he4 altered, and the resulting movement of the legs is used to determine thestrains on the material in a resistive, inductive or capacitive manner by means cooperating withsaid device.

xters'ometers of conventional tylsfme, devised yfor p in a single direction andare. accordingly provided withz one or two deiiectible Such ext nsonjieters can not he used for simultaneousmeasurexlent's' different directions within. ai region. to betested. Inn orderl to place such a device steadily on' afar'tto be Ltjes d it? must `beprovic'ied with additional supports extlll lng 4at right ang-les to the measuring-direction. in many cases, the device must furtherV he provided with special attachment members,l particularly 'i t aseswhere is to bie placedl on'. an inclined or downwar acing. sur-V It will he apparent thaty such extensor'neters have rather limited possibilities of use and-arey time-consuming in operation. j f

j The main object oithe inveijition isv toy provide an proved extensometer by mea-ns of which measurements can be made simultaneously in any desired direction within a triangular 'area confinedv by the indentorsz of the legs. Another Objectis to so devise the extensorneterthat it can be placed on any desired surface irrespectiveV of. the location thereof and. can be. easily movedV to diierent places on` the surface to be tested.. A v l A Y j Y n The above and further objects are attained bythe -I'/ Chanisms illustrated in the. annexed. drawings which show forms ofV construction comprising un'bondedv wire. type sensing members, that. is,rifi which. the movements of the legs are transmitted Vto sensing members. consisting of wires the cross-sectional area or" which. varies as a resull ot" extensions or contraotions of the material: to be tested. thereby to change the electrical. resistance of the wires, For the sakev of elearance, ther embodiment of the invention is illustrated on anr exaggerated scale in the drawings in whichy j FIG. l is a view in. elevation of the improved extensometer as viewed in` the direction of the arrows A,

FG". 2,A the protective cover of the extensometer being shown in section to make visible theparts housed1 thereirl. 2 is a sectional view alongth, line B--B,. FIG. l. 3 is a sectional view along the line C-C of FIG. 2. FIG., illustrates partial s tional View taken In glesfto theY D-QSBFIGS. 1 ands, and along the une MF of FIG. 1. F1os. 5f-s are ritagliarmatic views explaining.k the mode of oper' on ofthe extei'ismten and FIG. 9 illustrates 'an' elec ic wiring diagrain forming part of the exteasometer. FIG. is a partial sectional view of the embodiment of FIGS. l and s taken at right angles tothe axisDD on the line` of FIG. l, while FIG. ll is a view similar to FIG; 10 taken on the line G--G of FIG. l. vvljIGy. 1 2 is a view of the bottom of a modied form ofextensorheter in which orsi' i ,29 l` Patented. Sept.4 26,. 1,961

The'embodiments described is assumedy to be placed on a horizontal, upward-facing surface, as shown inFEG'S. l? and? 3i. However, it will he obvious` from the following description that the device may be placed in anyl desired position andthat any indications aste the-location of the partel Iwithreferenee'- to FIGS. 1 andY 3 only refer tothe actualk location shown inthe drawing.

Referring to FIG-S. l' to 4, numeral 1 denotes a cen'.- trai: body part which. by means of screwsV 2is connected with legs S which at their lower ends have sharpl indentors 4. Above the central part l, the uppervend of each leg 3` is rigidly; connected with an insulator 6 which` faces the central axis DMD of the device and hasmounted th'ereon projections or pegs 7. Below thecentral part,- 11, each leg 3 is connected with asimilar insulator 8 having pegs 9. The pegs '7' Iand 9 are located, in such amanner that they' are parallel to' each other on two adiacent insulators", (see FiGS. 2:y and 4)". Near their upper ends the legs 3i ralso have pegs lo" which' are parallel to each other on two -adjacent legs. Below the central part l, the legs 3v have pegs il"V which also are parallel to each other on nivo adjacent legs.V

Around each pair of upper parallel pegs lil and around eachy pairl of lower parallel pegsV l1 there is wound a sens'- ing member consisting of a wire 12 and i3, respectively?,V each of said wiresV comprising. substantially parallel prestressed parte extending between the pegs. The 'ends oi the sensing wire l2' wound around two pegs lil are se# cured to two pegs 7' projecting from adjacent insulators d. Inl-a similar' manner, the ends of a sensingwire 13,

y wr'iund around two pegs ll are secured to pegs 9 on twoadjacent insulators. The pegs lo and ll consist of'alumini'm and are oxidized at their surfaces to insulate the'y sensing wires from the legs. The wires are glued to tholegs il, ll and' 7, 9 to prevent them from sliding thereon.

The three upper sensing members l2 interconnect the upper ends of the three legs 3, whereas the three lower sensing members i3 interconnect the lower ends of the legs. The ends of the wires at the pegs 7 and 9 are connected to wires vwhich extend outwards through the cover; i7 to` a reading-instrument orrecording-instrument. The' last-'named wires are not shown in FIG-S. l to 4, but are illustrated in FlGS. 5 and 9 to ibe described later on in connection with the mode oi operation.

When not acted upon by any forces, the legs 3 screwed to the central part l areparallel to the central longitu dinaly axis D-D and to each other. The legs are devised such as to be resiliently deliectible to a slight extent in planes extending through the central axis D-D. To this end each ieg 3 has two weakened parts 14 serving as thecenters of angular movement and connecting the parts 3bof the legs rigidly screwed to the central part i with the movable main parts 3a of the legs. By means of vertical slots 3c, the parts 3b and i4 are partly spaced apart from the parts 3a to permit the desired movement of the last: named parts. The legs are deilectible iudejziendentlyv of each other.

The central part 1 is provided with a downwardlyextending permanent magnet 5 the lower end of whichis located labove the surface to be tested upon which the device is placed and which consequently is contacted only by the three indentors 4. Between the magnet 5 and the supporting surface there is an air gap lil which should be as small `as possible. An extensometer provided with a magnetcan obviously be used only for testing materials:

lmagneticproperties. Due Ato the attraction between the magnet and the supporting surface the inden.- torswill be pressed sufiiciently hard against the surface to prevent sliding movement thereon.

Vpheric pressure.

Formeasurements of a non-magnetic surface the ex- Y tensometer may be provided with a downwardly open kvacuum chamber, and a rubber ring may be used as a sealing member between the chamber and the surface. If

7 and with reference to FIG. 8. FIG. 5 -illustrates diagrammatically the main parts shown in FIGS. Al to 4 in their approximate relativepositions, numeral 1 indicating the central body, numerals 3 the legs, numerals 4 the inV dentors, and 14 the centers of angular movement of the legs corresponding to the weakened parts 14 in FIG, 1

Numerals 12 and 1 3 denote the upper and lower sensing Y Y wires,`respectively. As previously mentioned, these wires are insulated from the legs 3. Wires 12a and 12b connect thesen'sing wires separately to reading instruments shown in FIG. 9. 1

In FIG. 5, the legs 3 are shown in their parallel positions. The indentors 4 rest on the surface 15.to be tested and are assumed to be located at the corners ofan equilateral triangle 16.

FIG. 6 illustrates the parallel positions of the legs in separate planes X, Y and Z all of which extend through thexcommon central axis D-D. As mentioned above, the legs 3 are movably merely in their respective plane X, Y or Z.

The surface belongs toa machine part which for the measurement of strains is subjected to predetermined loads such as to cause tensile or compressive stresses in thesurface which Yresult in an extension or contraction of the surface laround the region defined by the indentors. The indentors will move in accordance with the strains on the surface so las to alter their distances from each other, the changes in said distances as compared with the original spacing of the indentors corresponding to the occurring strains. In case of metals the relation between the deflections of the indentors and the strains is usually 'a linear one in accordance with the so called generalized Hookes law. FIG. 7 illustrates to an exaggerated scale the angular movements of the X-leg and Y-leg in their respective planes during the measurement, the Z-leg being assumed .to maintain its original position in its plane.

v FIG. 8 illustrates the exemplified displacements of the indentors as viewed in a direction at right angles to the plane 15. The indentor of the X-leg has moved from X to X', andthe indentor of the Y-leg has moved from Y 'to Y. Y I

FIG. 9 illustrates the wiring diagram of the extensometer and its reading-instruments. A common source 19` provides electric current for three measuring-bridges XY, XZ and YZ, said bridges being arranged in parallel with each other and comprisingy each an upper sensing member 12, a lower sensing member 13, resistors 20 and 21, respectively, and a reading-instrument 22.

In theexample illustrated in FIGS. 7 and 8, the resistance of the sensing member XZ-IZ will be increased, the resistance of the sensing member XZ-13 will be decreased, the resistance of the rsensing member YZ-12 will be de-V creased, and the resistance of the sensing member YZ-13 will be increased, resulting in the flow of currents through the instruments XZ-ZZ and YZ-22. In. the exempliiied lcase no current will flow through the instrument XY-ZZ 'in vspite of the angular movements of the X-leg and Y-leg VinV their respective planesX andY, provided that the disi tance between the'indento-rs of the X-leg and Y-leg has not been changed. v

`- Thestrengths of the Ycurrents indicated by the instrumentsare then'converted by Vcomputationinto terms of deflections in three directions making angles of 120 relaftive"each other. The deflections are then converted, in

accordance with the relation between the deflections Vand strains, into corresponding principal strains the directions of which will also be known. For most metallic materials there is a linear relation between the strains and the deflections, and the following equations are obtained toV compute the principal strains `aultheir directionsrfrom Eet-.)

tan Zwan-es-I-(es-e) in which r1 and u2 denote principal strains and e., rb and e, the measured deflections in the directions a, b and c. :pa denotes the angles between the measuring-directions and the directions'of the principal strains.

Although in the described embodiment sensing memjbers of theresistive type are used, it will be obvious' to those skilled in the art that the sensing membersvmay be ofthe inductive or capacitive type. Other modifications may be `made within the` scope of theappending claims,

What is claimed is;

An extensometer including a device comprising a central body part and three ldeilectible legs connected to the body part and having indentors to be placed on a surface to be tested, means supported by the central body part for attaching the extensometer vto the surface to be tested, all of said legs being independently delicotible in different nonparallel planes each in only one plane extending substantially at right 4angles to said sur'-Y face, the said planes crossingeach other along the central axis ofthe body part, said indentors being located at the corners of a triangle, whereby each leg is movable independently of the others but only in one plane and radial of said central axis; in combination with electric sensing members operatively connected between said legs at a distance from vthe centers of deflectible movement of the legs in order to be responsive to changes yin the relativepositions ofthe indentors.

4Q. An extensometer as set forth in claim 1, wherein 'said indentors are located at the corners of an equilateral triangle. 3. An extensometer as set forth in claim 1,.wherei1 1 the legs have centers of angular movement for their d e.- ection, said sensing members interconnectthe legs above and below the centers of angular movement of the legs,

and are of the unbonded wire strain gauge type.

4. `An extensometeras set forth in claim v1, wherein the legs have centers of angular movement for their deflection, said sensing members interconnect the legs above and below the centersof angular movement of the legs, and are of the inductive type.

5. An extensometer as set forth in claim lv and further comprising magnet means to fasten Ysaid device to the :surface to be tested. i '6. An extensom'eter as set forth in claim lin which the attaching means comprises a suction cup; whereby the indentors Will be pressed against'the surface under yatmospheric pressure within the triangle defined by the indentors.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Lankford Feb. 23, 1904 Keane Aug. 14,"1906 5 Dietrich May 31, 1938 Lehr Dec. 12, 1939 Ruge Apr. 20, `1943 Ruge Apr. 6, 1948 I'Morello May 22,1951 10 6 Hyde Dec. 11, 1951 Payamps Aug. 26, 1952 Dickson Sept. 9, 1952 Norris Nov. 24, y1953 Ruge Ian. 19, 1954 Epstein Dec. 14, 1954 FOREIGN PATENTS Germany June 19, 1944 Germany Mar. 15, 1956 

